Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2009, published 99th ILC session (2010)

Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 97) - United Republic of Tanzania.Zanzibar (Ratification: 1964)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

The Committee notes the Tanzania Immigration and Nationality Ordinance, No. 7 of 1995, adopted on 13 July 1995 by the Parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania, which repeals the Immigration Act 1972 and the Immigration Control Decree of Zanzibar. The Committee requests the Government to confirm that this text is applied on the territory of Zanzibar and to indicate whether the Migration Act, No. 2 of 1972, may also be considered as being repealed by the above Ordinance. If not, it requests the Government to provide a copy of the above text.

In its 1999 General Survey on migrant workers, the Committee noted that the situation respecting international migration for employment has changed greatly since the adoption of the Convention, both with regard to the volume, direction and nature of migration (see paragraphs 5–17 of the General Survey). The Committee therefore requests the Government to provide copies of any new legislative text or regulations which have been adopted in this field and to provide information on emigration and immigration policy, as well as information in reply to the questions contained in the report form on the Convention. Furthermore, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would describe the impact of current trends in migration flows on the content and application of its national policy and legislation in field of emigration and immigration. It requests the Government to provide statistics on the number of nationals of Zanzibar working abroad, and on the number and origin of foreign workers working in Zanzibar. It also wishes to know whether the latter may include nationals of the United Republic of Tanzania who were not born in Zanzibar.

The Committee requests the Government to provide more detailed information on the application in practice of its policy of equality of treatment between nationals and migrant workers in the fields enumerated in points (a), (b), (c) and (d) of Article 6 of the Convention. Recalling that, by virtue of the first paragraph of this Article, each Member for which the Convention is in force undertakes to apply to immigrants, without discrimination in respect of nationality, race, religion or sex, treatment no less favourable than that which it applies to its own nationals in respect of the matters set out in points (a) to (d) of the Article, the Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures which have been taken or are envisaged to ensure that women migrant workers are treated on an equal footing with their male colleagues, whether or not they are foreign, with regard to working and living conditions, social security, employment taxes and legal proceedings, particularly in view of the growing feminization of migration for employment (see paragraphs 20–33 and 658 of the above General Survey).

Article 8 of the Convention. In view of the fact that this provision is one of those most frequently referred to by Governments by reason of the difficulties that it raises for its application, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on the effect given in practice to the maintenance of the right of residence in cases where migrants for employment have been admitted on a permanent basis and suffer incapacity to work.

Article 9. The Committee notes that the Government has not been in a position to indicate the limits set by the national legislation upon the transfer of the earnings and savings of migrants for employment. It hopes that the Government will make every effort to provide the above information and copies of the relevant texts with its next report.

In view of the increasingly important role of private employment agencies in the process of international migration, the Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures which have been taken or are envisaged to regulate the activities of these agencies so as to protect migrant workers against abuses and misleading information. Please also indicate the penalties envisaged in cases, among others, of contraventions and misleading propaganda.

Finally, the Committee would be grateful to be kept informed of any proposal for the extension of the scope of application of Convention No. 97 throughout the territory of the United Republic of Tanzania, taking into account the scope of Ordinance No. 7 of 1995.